Extra, Extra: Rain Subsides, LAUSD still messed up

• Tomorrow is the first day California residents can apply for an absentee ballot - the 29th is the last day to submit a request. (Click here for the online absentee application).
  
• The first wave of Stormwatch 2008 has largely faded into nothingness today as sun peeked through clouds and puddles began to dry. But another storm of equal or lesser value could follow soon. Downtown received about 5.3 inches, well above its total last year and the average for this time of year. Farmers and LA River-ists celebrate!
  
• But celebrating is not what one family is doing aftera 25-year-old Chino woman died Saturday when her truck was swept away by floods after someone removed a barricade that might have alerted her to the area's danger.
  
• From the 'things you will never see on Cops' desk: a man walked into a San Diego Subway restaurant, ordered a sandwich and then pointed a gun at the cashier at which point he allegedly stole their cash. Do you think they asked whether or not he wanted his sandwich to go?
  
• Assemblyman Kevin de Leon is planning to introduce a bill Monday that will urge LAUSD to recoup any lost money from bad deals the district engaged in with contractors. De Leon charged Deloitte & Touche with conducting something akin to a "very sophisticated scam," in which - despite being paid $55 million to smoothly roll out the system - the company requested an additional $9.4 million to fix the problems, The Daily News said.
  
• Along with Leno, Letterman and others, Bill Maher is returning to late night in the midst of this seven week long writer's strike. He will do so without two of the most popular segments, the opening monologue and his closing segment, as both are heavily reliant on writers. He will instead expand his round table and further tweak the format of the show. Whether these returns strengthens the writer's cause (in that people see how reliant some of these shows are on writers) or weakens it (because late night is returning) remains to be seen. I will say, though, that I really dug Letterman's beard.
  
• A federal judge has ordered the toughest set of restrictions ever imposed on the U.S. Navy's use of mid-frequency sonar off the Southern California coast, as part of a protracted court battle to protect whales and other marine mammals from underwater sonic blasts, LA Superior Court documents said.
  
• Finally, Los Angeles's own Radar Bros. will be headlining a month long residency at The Echo starting tomorrow night and going every Monday. For free! Go check them out.
  

Photo by kpe II via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr